In today's edition of the Houston Press we are announcing this year's winners of our MasterMind Award. For five years now we've handed out checks of $2,000 to three individuals or groups for doing what we believe is outstanding work in the Houston arts community.

As in years past, the 2013 winners come from different fields in the arts. Opera, stage and dance are represented this year and at this Saturday's awards ceremony during our Artopia party at Winter Street Studios, all three will show us a brief onstage sample of what made them winners.

Past winners have used the money they received to help them start new programs, move buildings or just pay the bills. We don't put limits on what they can do with the money they receive.

Equally, if not more important, many have told us, is the recognition they receive from the award, in the local community and beyond.

So without further ado, here's this year's winners. But go ahead and read the entire cover story by Night and Day Editor Olivia Flores Alvarez to get more details on three pretty amazing stories.

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Photo by Marco Torres

From left: Terrence Gallivan and Seth Siegel-Gardner

After being named one of our MasterMinds Awards winners in January, Seth Siegel-Gardner and Terrence Gallivan, the duo behind the Pilot Light Restaurant group, got a little bit of unwanted attention.

"We got shut down by the health department," Siegel-Gardner said.

The two friends, who met in kitchens in New York City, got their Houston start with the Just August Project, a monthlong series of pop-up dinners in 2010. By the following fall, they were cooking meals in the stock room of the Westheimer clothing boutique Mortar while looking for a space to start a restaurant of their own.

The health department didn't like that very much.

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Photo by Marco Torres

In January, Captain Paul Matthews, founder of The Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, told our Steve Jansen that the museum's collection of military items, ranging in dates from 1866 to 1951, was outgrowing its space in a 3,500-square-foot building on Southmore Boulevard, where it had been housed for 12 years. The Buffalo Soldiers Museum was in the midst of a capital campaign to fund its move to a new home when they were announced as winners of a 2012 Houston Press MasterMinds award.

That recognition, along with a $2,000 no-strings-attached cash prize, helped finalize the move. The money was used to renovate the 1925 Houston Light Guard Armory Building, which the collection moved into, aptly, on Veterans Day.

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Photo by Marco Torres

Alex "Pr!mo" Luster, 2012 MasterMind

The trouble with being a creative person is that sometimes things like work, life and other responsibilities get in the way. And when your creative processes take a long time, by the time people start paying attention to your work, you're already focused on the next project. Just as the film he directed, Stick 'Em Up!, is starting to get recognition from international film festivals, Alex "Pr!mo" Luster is ready to move on to his next project, a mini documentary for the Houston Arts Alliance on Texas sculptor David Adickes.

In January, when Luster was named a 2012 Houston Press MasterMind, he told our writer Steve Jansen that he was already brainstorming his next full-length feature, leaning towards a non-documentary project. Luster had become well-known locally as a connoisseur of street art thanks to his documentary on Houston wheat paste artists, Stick 'Em Up!, and the cover story we did on his life, "Up From The Underground". The documentary was produced by street artist Gonzo 247 and written by Tony Reyes.

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Nominations are now open for the fifth annual MasterMind Award competition honoring the best in Houston arts. We're looking for life-changing artistic types and we're also offering a special deal on our Deal of the Day today to help you get in the door cheaper at the party we throw called Artopia.

The Houston Press is looking for artists of all types who are changing our creative and cultural landscape in the Houston area. Past honorees have included a museum, theater companies, dancers, chefs and a filmmaker.

And once again, we're calling on you for nominations. If you know a good candidate, please send in his or her name and something about them to us. If you want to nominate yourself, by all means do so. And please don't limit yourself to the genres of past winners. We're very proud of all of them, but we'd also be pleased to see some scriptwriters, street performers and show choirs in the mix.

Three winners will each receive a check for $2,000 along with a plaque at a special ceremony that is part of the Press's annual Artopia Party celebrated at the Winter Street Studios on Saturday, January 26, 2013.

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Photo by Marco Torres

Collaborative street art mural created especially for Artopia.

Check out a slideshow from Artopia at Winter Street Studios.

If you weren't at Artopia on Saturday, you missed a lot of really cool stuff, not limited to the first-ever performance by a MasterMinds Award winner (in this case, Melissa Waddy-Thibodeaux of the Buffalo Soldiers Museum performing as Harriet Tubman) and an ephemeral mural by Houston's best street artists that is probably being painted over at this very moment.

But seriously, Artopia is always a fun, kick-ass event and this year was no exception. There's a reason it sells out. In addition to performances by local arts orgs, lots of cool stuff to look at on the walls, tasting menus from Houston-area restaurants and plenty of wine to keep the vibe going, it's also a chance for the Press to recognize the MasterMind winners, who represent growth and promise in the Houston art community.

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Photo courtesy Alex Luster

Street art documentarian Alex Luster, a 2012 MasterMinds winner, poses with Houston's anonymous street artists.

Under cover of night, Houston's anonymous street artists have been toiling away in secret at Winter Street Studios, building the most amazing collaborative mural of street art Houston will have ever seen. If you're a fan of Cutthroat, Shreddi, Ack!, 2:12 or any of Houston's other street artists, you want to be sure to make it to our 2012 Artopia and MasterMinds awards ceremony, Saturday, January 28, at 8 p.m at Winter Street. Why? Because this mural will be destroyed once the party's over. You'll only have one chance to see it.

Until then, you can take a sneak peek at our slideshow of detail shots of the Artopia mural. See if you can guess the artist behind each slide.

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A museum, a filmmaker and a pair of chefs -- profiled in this week's cover story -- are the winners of the 2012 Houston Press MasterMind Awards, which hook up cutting-edge organizations and individuals with a no-strings-attached, $2,000 check.

Now in its fourth year, the MasterMind Awards recognizes creative Houstonians for their output and gifts them some funds as they attempt to take the next step in their careers. As in years past, the winners were determined from submitted applications as well as an in-house review panel.

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Okay, so the Houston Press is about to throw its annual Artopia party at Winter Street Studios at the end of this month -- a celebration of all things arty and the people who are so inclined.

We're offering a special chance to win two VIP tickets. That gets you into a private VIP area (less competition for drinks and a better chance to sit down) as well as the complete run of the evening's events.

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Courtesy Foodways Texas

The whole hog at Foodways Texas's 2011 Barbecue Summer Camp.

This time one year ago, Foodways Texas was an extremely young collective of chefs, food historians and other epicureans seeking to preserve the food history and traditional Gulf Coast/Creole/Cajun cuisine of Texas.

The organization, founded by former Houston Press food critic Robb Walsh, was partially inspired by the Southern Foodways Alliance, a Mississippi-based organization dedicated to the food culture of the Deep South. In January, the Foodways Texas's executive director Martin Bendele told the Press that the group had a few objectives for 2011: to build up an archive of oral history and film pertaining to Texas food traditions; to build membership in some of the state's smaller cities; and to get more members involved in the organization's efforts.

And 2011 has been a rough year for Texas agriculture, mostly due to Mother Nature, but Bendele said the group is well on its way to accomplishing at least one of those goals.

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